7 ms·

A couple of things not mentioned: * Half of the population watching the same episodes of the same programme simultaneously. If you missed an episode, it was go

A couple of things not mentioned: * Half of the population watching the same episodes of the same programme simultaneously. If you missed an episode, it was gone forever * Inane arguments in pubs about facts that couldn't be instantly googled.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
ASalazarMX 5y ago
> * Inane arguments in pubs about facts that couldn't be instantly googled. I don't miss those. Before the Internet, if it wasn't on an encyclopedia and you weren't at the library, you had no way of corroborating information. On the other hand, since facts are so accessible right now, those arguments have shifted to voicing their feelings and wishes because those can't be falsified.
- OJFord 5y ago
  Perhaps 'inane arguments in pubs' isn't the best framing, but I do find the ability to ~instantly search for an answer online kills a lot of discussion. I find it quite irritating sometimes - can we not just talk about it! - and it's not like I have a long memory before it was possible. (I grew up with phones certainly, was in school when they became 'smart'.)
- jsight 5y ago
  You aren't kidding, I'm also seeing a trend of people claiming that any information that doesn't match their viewpoint must be faked or dishonest.
  - johncessna 5y ago
    The issue isn't that people are just huffing, crossing their arms, and crying fake news. The issue is that they are able to bring up 100 different sites supporting their claims. The person they are arguing with, obviously knows that the other is an idiot because they have 100 different sites supporting their claims! In a way, we've regressed back before we had the answer machine at our fingertips. You don't really know who's correct. It's just changed from 'Well, I heard xyz from my friend's aunt's sister, so I'm right. Oh yeah! Gary just said the opposite yesterday, so you're wrong' to something a little bit different.
    - flavius29663 5y ago
      It's like we're reaching the times when we should again start thinking more for ourselves, given the information at hand: make assumptions, try to prove them, try a reductio ad absurdum etc. But unfortunately people's brains are fried because of the constant social media bombardment.
    - jsight 5y ago
      I see that happening too, but tbh, I see it happening even without evidence. Its almost like some weird form of "thinking for yourself", but taken to the point of rejecting any evidence that doesn't match the preconceived notion. There doesn't even need to be evidence on the other side.
    - ASalazarMX 5y ago
      Humanity as a whole is still learning to cope with the Internet. We're still learning that it has beautiful and disgusting things, many hiding as the other.
- munificent 5y ago
  The fundamental way that humans begin bonding is through favor exchange. I give you something. You give me something. Back and forth until eventually we lose count and realize we have become fast friends. Information sharing is an extremely low barrier kind of favor because when I give you some information, I still have it too. When we no longer need each other to learn about that hole in the wall restaurant, that new band, how to fix a leaky sink, we have also lost important tools to forge connections with each other. I worry a lot that the Internet and cheap consumer goods has essentially knocked the bottom rungs off the ladder of human relationships. I don't need others to find a place to eat or live, or to learn a new skill or hobby. But I do still need them to share my feelings and worries with. But it's really hard to jump straight to the level of relationship where you can talk about those things without going through several rounds of "Hey, can I borrow your drill?" and "Do you remember who voiced Fred Flintstone?"
  - javajosh 5y ago
    >When we no longer need each other to learn about that hole in the wall restaurant, that new band And yet the best information is still person-to-person, old school. It lives in the cracks that software misses and where review systems are gamed. Finding good Indian food is hard - but the locals know. Who has an open mic night? Hard to say without connections. Maybe the ultimate example is real estate - deep knowledge of any given place comes after you've lived there, and understand it's history, is life. And that's impossible to represent online. >cheap consumer goods Yes: making everything in Shenzen is a problem because now it's the only community that knows how to make and fix things. (Obviously its not 100% the case, but its mostly the case.) That lack of distributed ability has follow-on effects that we don't understand yet -- most worryingly having to do with national security, but also about agency and curiosity and self-determination. Maybe we should have to pass a test before being allowed to use any particular object, showing that we at least know how its made and where it's constituent parts come from.
coding123 5y ago
Often if you missed an episode you had one more chance usually either at 2 am or during the day time the next day.
- mikestew 5y ago
  Or, at least in the U. S., "summer reruns". The show would still be parked in the same time slot, but since production didn't run year-round, episodes from the last season would be rerun over the summer before the fall T. V. season started. But that was the last chance before you had to wait 25 years for the Dukes of Hazzard DVD box set.
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    > But that was the last chance before you had to wait 25 years for the Dukes of Hazzard DVD box set. You skipped right over syndication, which is what every series was aiming for (and Dukes of Hazzard definitely attained.)
- mixmastamyk 5y ago
  Shows often repeated in the summer as well. Popular longer shows made it to syndication.
sosuke 5y ago
Just a random thought you inspired. If any "collective consciousness" ideas are grounded at all in reality does missing the shared episode experience negatively change it? I remember that the Game of Thrones red wedding event still seemed to happen at the same time even though it was re-watchable on demand.
kenjackson 5y ago
Another thing was regional music. I used to hear about GoGo music in DC, but I couldn't get access to it on the West Coast. People who had access to lots of different music were the music elites. I worked in college radio and set up the college's first Real Audio server and that was a game changer (we were admittedly late to the game, but the whole notion was a game changer). And now music really knows no bounds.
- lordnacho 5y ago
  This is even worse across language boundaries. Everyone everywhere seems to listen to the same Anglophone bands these days. In most European countries there used to be different sound you could get coming from local acts. They still exist, but their airtime is much reduced. Also a lot of them play songs in English, I guess to satisfy the customers and just in case they manage to break into the big time.
ectopod 5y ago
My local had the Dunlop Book of Facts as an inane argument ender. Although some people considering it cheating.
- theyellowkid 5y ago
  Something like that has the value of leading everyone down an interesting path while looking up something else. I'd probably just veer off by mentioning that Sissy Spacek is Rip Torn's cousin (wait! who is Rip Torn? who is Sissy Spacek?)
imhoguy 5y ago
> If you missed an episode, it was gone forever I set VHS recorder just in case.
- runjake 5y ago
  There was a time when we didn't have VHS to record. I remember that time well. It was really a bummer to miss something. It was probably going to be years, or at least seasons, until you got to see it again.
jon-wood 5y ago
I have a rule when in pubs - no Googling answers to the inane argument. Inane arguments in pubs aren’t about getting the right answer, they’re about the tangents you end up going down from them, something that’s lost if you can just immediately get the answer.
mjhagen 5y ago
Who was that one actor in that movie? I don't know. Ok. Another round?
Broken_Hippo 5y ago
I don't miss these arguments: I much prefer a short stint of BS, followed by searching for facts - which is often followed by a different conversation. Before it was just folks trying to convince others that they were right with no conclusion.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

ASalazarMX 5y ago

> * Inane arguments in pubs about facts that couldn't be instantly googled. I don't miss those. Before the Internet, if it wasn't on an encyclopedia and you weren't at the library, you had no way of corroborating information. On the other hand, since facts are so accessible right now, those arguments have shifted to voicing their feelings and wishes because those can't be falsified.

OJFord 5y ago
Perhaps 'inane arguments in pubs' isn't the best framing, but I do find the ability to ~instantly search for an answer online kills a lot of discussion. I find it quite irritating sometimes - can we not just talk about it! - and it's not like I have a long memory before it was possible. (I grew up with phones certainly, was in school when they became 'smart'.)
jsight 5y ago
You aren't kidding, I'm also seeing a trend of people claiming that any information that doesn't match their viewpoint must be faked or dishonest.
- johncessna 5y ago
  The issue isn't that people are just huffing, crossing their arms, and crying fake news. The issue is that they are able to bring up 100 different sites supporting their claims. The person they are arguing with, obviously knows that the other is an idiot because they have 100 different sites supporting their claims! In a way, we've regressed back before we had the answer machine at our fingertips. You don't really know who's correct. It's just changed from 'Well, I heard xyz from my friend's aunt's sister, so I'm right. Oh yeah! Gary just said the opposite yesterday, so you're wrong' to something a little bit different.
  - flavius29663 5y ago
    It's like we're reaching the times when we should again start thinking more for ourselves, given the information at hand: make assumptions, try to prove them, try a reductio ad absurdum etc. But unfortunately people's brains are fried because of the constant social media bombardment.
  - jsight 5y ago
    I see that happening too, but tbh, I see it happening even without evidence. Its almost like some weird form of "thinking for yourself", but taken to the point of rejecting any evidence that doesn't match the preconceived notion. There doesn't even need to be evidence on the other side.
  - ASalazarMX 5y ago
    Humanity as a whole is still learning to cope with the Internet. We're still learning that it has beautiful and disgusting things, many hiding as the other.
munificent 5y ago
The fundamental way that humans begin bonding is through favor exchange. I give you something. You give me something. Back and forth until eventually we lose count and realize we have become fast friends. Information sharing is an extremely low barrier kind of favor because when I give you some information, I still have it too. When we no longer need each other to learn about that hole in the wall restaurant, that new band, how to fix a leaky sink, we have also lost important tools to forge connections with each other. I worry a lot that the Internet and cheap consumer goods has essentially knocked the bottom rungs off the ladder of human relationships. I don't need others to find a place to eat or live, or to learn a new skill or hobby. But I do still need them to share my feelings and worries with. But it's really hard to jump straight to the level of relationship where you can talk about those things without going through several rounds of "Hey, can I borrow your drill?" and "Do you remember who voiced Fred Flintstone?"
- javajosh 5y ago
  >When we no longer need each other to learn about that hole in the wall restaurant, that new band And yet the best information is still person-to-person, old school. It lives in the cracks that software misses and where review systems are gamed. Finding good Indian food is hard - but the locals know. Who has an open mic night? Hard to say without connections. Maybe the ultimate example is real estate - deep knowledge of any given place comes after you've lived there, and understand it's history, is life. And that's impossible to represent online. >cheap consumer goods Yes: making everything in Shenzen is a problem because now it's the only community that knows how to make and fix things. (Obviously its not 100% the case, but its mostly the case.) That lack of distributed ability has follow-on effects that we don't understand yet -- most worryingly having to do with national security, but also about agency and curiosity and self-determination. Maybe we should have to pass a test before being allowed to use any particular object, showing that we at least know how its made and where it's constituent parts come from.

coding123 5y ago

Often if you missed an episode you had one more chance usually either at 2 am or during the day time the next day.

mikestew 5y ago
Or, at least in the U. S., "summer reruns". The show would still be parked in the same time slot, but since production didn't run year-round, episodes from the last season would be rerun over the summer before the fall T. V. season started. But that was the last chance before you had to wait 25 years for the Dukes of Hazzard DVD box set.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > But that was the last chance before you had to wait 25 years for the Dukes of Hazzard DVD box set. You skipped right over syndication, which is what every series was aiming for (and Dukes of Hazzard definitely attained.)
mixmastamyk 5y ago
Shows often repeated in the summer as well. Popular longer shows made it to syndication.

sosuke 5y ago

Just a random thought you inspired. If any "collective consciousness" ideas are grounded at all in reality does missing the shared episode experience negatively change it? I remember that the Game of Thrones red wedding event still seemed to happen at the same time even though it was re-watchable on demand.

kenjackson 5y ago

Another thing was regional music. I used to hear about GoGo music in DC, but I couldn't get access to it on the West Coast. People who had access to lots of different music were the music elites. I worked in college radio and set up the college's first Real Audio server and that was a game changer (we were admittedly late to the game, but the whole notion was a game changer). And now music really knows no bounds.

lordnacho 5y ago
This is even worse across language boundaries. Everyone everywhere seems to listen to the same Anglophone bands these days. In most European countries there used to be different sound you could get coming from local acts. They still exist, but their airtime is much reduced. Also a lot of them play songs in English, I guess to satisfy the customers and just in case they manage to break into the big time.

ectopod 5y ago

My local had the Dunlop Book of Facts as an inane argument ender. Although some people considering it cheating.

theyellowkid 5y ago
Something like that has the value of leading everyone down an interesting path while looking up something else. I'd probably just veer off by mentioning that Sissy Spacek is Rip Torn's cousin (wait! who is Rip Torn? who is Sissy Spacek?)

imhoguy 5y ago

> If you missed an episode, it was gone forever I set VHS recorder just in case.

runjake 5y ago
There was a time when we didn't have VHS to record. I remember that time well. It was really a bummer to miss something. It was probably going to be years, or at least seasons, until you got to see it again.

jon-wood 5y ago

I have a rule when in pubs - no Googling answers to the inane argument. Inane arguments in pubs aren’t about getting the right answer, they’re about the tangents you end up going down from them, something that’s lost if you can just immediately get the answer.

mjhagen 5y ago

Who was that one actor in that movie? I don't know. Ok. Another round?

Broken_Hippo 5y ago

I don't miss these arguments: I much prefer a short stint of BS, followed by searching for facts - which is often followed by a different conversation. Before it was just folks trying to convince others that they were right with no conclusion.